How on earth are we supposed to afford dd going to university

[Butby]

Dd got an offer from Lincoln uni for adult nursing. She was hoping to get somewhere local to avoid accommodation costs but didn't get offers locally.

I want her to be able to attend but doing my sums now, I work ft earning about 20k, my dh is self employed turnover 24k 2014/2015 which was a bad year.

I think we'd only be entitled to nhs bursary about 3,500 and maintenance loan of 2500. We don't have the money to top this up as have a few debts etc and she runs a car which she pays from from a part time job, and she's been told she will find it a challenge to work whilst studying and placements.

Does this sound at all doable? feeling very depressed that we've never been able to afford to put money aside for this before

[BaconAndAvocado]

springscoming that's great to hear!

Our small ones are only 7 and 9, maybe things will be different by then??

We've just starting putting away £100 a month for them which will help out a bit.

[Butby]

Ah thank you for that. Although I agree what the previous poster that she will be silly to turn down the place you can't make them and if I say this she'll dig her heels in. I'm going to keep focussing on the positives to coax her a little into accepting it then I hope can start to get used the idea. If she doesn't accept it I'll have to accept her decision and if she wants it enough she'll get there, just with a bloody big debt

[Headofthehive55]

Fifty miles is drivable frequently. My DD gets home quicker than I do from work...in the nearest city. It's important for her to take up the place, in my opinion, but lots of people drop out after the first year so unis often have spaces, and transfers do happen, although they all don't advertise the fact.

There is another six months to go so time to get her head round it. Not everyone has a fantastic time at uni, I didn't , and my DD isn't really happy there although she loves her course. She is much happier at home. There is nothing wrong in that!

How about getting a box and starting to put stuff in it for uni, buy sone mugs, etc. Might get her excited.

Oh and tell her not to worry about the uni itself, nursing us one of those degrees that it matters little where you study.

[Butby]

About 50 miles away - she is a homebod but she has been out and about much more since she passed her driving test and is fairly independent- she likes her home comforts too. I really don't want her to miss this opportunity though and do think once she's there will have the time of her life - I might tell her once she's done a full year we can look at gettin a swap closer to home

[Headofthehive55]

How far away will she be from home?
is she a home bird or is it that she likes the home uni?
I think Lincoln is a nice place!

[Butby]

Sorry meant mostly mature students

[Butby]

Yes we've had a good chat tonight and I've asked her to have a good think about it before she makes her decision and at least go and have a look around etc. She said she will so hoping she goes for it. There's definitely no guarantee of a place next time and she told me at each interview she was the youngest there, as mature students. I would imagine this helps too having a bit if life experience behind you.

[springscoming]

Bacon we did the calculations and came to £800 for the 2. Rather than have us sell the house, they were happy to manage on £200 per month each and DS1 has even managed to save out of that. So they don't get as much as those with full entitlement but that;s life. They've managed.

[Headofthehive55]

Often your shifts are squished together and if you do twelve hour shifts you won't do five of them in a week so she would have time to come home.

I can understand her feelings, my DD would much rather have gone to the local uni, (she does a different course) but that wasn't meant to be but she has a car and comes home a lot, I see her most weeks really.

She might be able to transfer after her first year. And there is no guarantee she would get accepted next time round. It's getting more competitive by the year.

[2rebecca]

I think she's being silly turning it down. 27k is a huge amount of money for her to have to pay back on a nurse's salary. What will be so different next year? That's a lot of money she could put towards just returning to your house when she can. If she wants to be a nurse she should just get on with it.
I think dithering around for a year only makes sense if you don't know what you want to do or didn't get the offers you want/ need to resit etc.
Nursing students have quite a good community usually, it's less isolating than the courses where you just have 3 or 4 lectures a week.

[WhoTheFuckIsSimon]

From 2017 they have to pay course fees.

[WhoTheFuckIsSimon]

Well that will cost her an extra 27k!

[Butby]

Omg now she says she doesn't want to move away and intends to turn it down and reapply next year grrrr 😬

[2rebecca]

After their first year in halls "rent" doesn't cover bills. There are also books to buy, food, beer, clothes transport. If they join clubs those will have costs involved re transport, accommodation at weekends away/ fixtures/ clothing etc.

[Butby]

Ahh I see, thanks for this - I'm reading this as the bursary going, they still won't have to pay course fees will they ?

[BaconAndAvocado]

backforgood £100 a week does sound a lot after rent, not sure how we came to, that sum.....

It will still be a lot to find each month!

[mysteryfairy]

government link re changes to funding for nursing degrees from 01/08/2017

It's definitely very much in her interests to go this year though I think these changes will have made 2016 entry even more competitive which may explain why she didn't get a local place.

[BackforGood]

It does for most people Bacon (well, depending on University, it doesn't cover the rent in some) but a student doesn't need £400 to live on after their rent is paid.

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

We give our two £4500 a year each. (They get about £3500 loan)

£9000 is a lot of money, fortunately most of it is from an inheritance we put away for them.

They both do a bit of work as well, make about a £1000 or so in the holidays to tide them over.

We have another two still to go.

[BaconAndAvocado]

We've been doing the sums and have worked out that if both our younger DCs go to Uni we'll be contributing approx £800 a month.

The maintenance loan will only cover the rents.

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

If she works 20 hours a week now, she will have a lot of spare income. She can build up a bit of savings before she goes.

[BaconAndAvocado]

It is all very scary.

We've been doing the sums and if both our younger DCs got,to Uni we will be making up,the shortfall to the tunes of approx £800 per month.

The maintenance loan for,us will only cover the rent.

[DinosaursRoar]

oh and if she's in halls, does that include meals? If she's new to budgetting, being in uni accomodation so it's one flat fee, no electricity/gas/water bills to plan for is an easier way into learning to manage your money.

[MushroomMama]

I was a student nurse way back in 2008 and I managed to fund my way through with NHS bursary alone. Zero support from parents aswell. It's totally doable but she's got to learn to budget.

[DinosaursRoar]

So she'll have £200 a month left over from her loan to cover living expenses, and if you cancel the gym membership, budget in her pocket money and don't have her eating at home, could you give her £100 - £150 on top of that? That's easily enough, £30-40 a week to feed herself, £30-40 a week for going out/clothes/everything else. She might not be a baked beans kind of girl, but she'll learn and be surrounded by other teens living on similar budgets.

Will she be home (and being fed by you) for holidays? Has she any savings from her job?